What would happen if the 'Patriot 1' vanity car number plate is given to DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang?

This was posed by Umno state assemblyperson Tengku Putra Haron Aminurrashid, who earlier this month, had likened the selling of the 'Patriot'  number plates to prostitution .

"Wouldn't it be a poetic irony if the winning bidder for 'Patriot 1' were to present it to Lim Kit Siang to drive to Parliament?

"Picture this. An opposition leader using the sacred number sold by a former executive secretary of Umno.

"If one is the patriot, what shall we call the other?‎" Tengku Putra ( photo) told Malaysiakini in an e-mail interview.

The Kempas state assemblyperson explained that he had brought up the matter with a bit more gusto than usual as the word 'patriot' is sacred to him.

"We need to feel the sense of nationalism, which I think requires a second and third look, be it at any level.

"This sense of nationalism is the foundation of every great nation and we were built on that platform when the founding fathers came together.

"So at a time like this, why put up for sale a word that has such deeper meaning especially to the ones who have shed blood, sweat and tears for the last 58 years and even long before that," he said.

He pointed out that even the US uses the word 'patriot' for an act passed by its Congress. Therefore, this is why said Tengku Putra he considers the act of selling the Patriot plates as sacrilegious.

'Vacuum at ministerial level'

"Certain things are just not meant to be put on a shelf in a shop or on the plate of a fancy sports car where it can be urinated upon by four-legged creatures, especially the word 'patriot'," he said.

The ‘Patriot 1’ vanity car registration number plate was sold last Wednesday for a sky-high bid of RM1,308,000 to take honours as the most expensive number plate ever sold in the country.

It was auctioned off by the controversial NGO Yayasan Patriot Negara Malaysia (YPN), which set a reserve price of RM1 million.

With YPN president Brig-Gen (R) Husainay Hashim being a former Umno executive secretary and with several committee members coming from one family, the auction had raised eyebrows about being a lucrative gravy-train business contract involving cronies.

           

Several opposition leaders have urged RTD to retract its contract and for MACC to investigate the case, but RTD stressed that the contract would be withdrawn only if YPN breached its terms and conditions.

 

Tengku Putra, who personal blog is coincidentally named 'The Patriot', said the lack of commitment at the ministerial level to stop the sale of the plates was because  the authorities did not fathom the importance of the word 'patriot'.

"They probably think this is just another promotional gimmick and whenever a promotion is candy-coated with terms like 'for a good cause', all things become equal and therefore the idea is good," he said.

Rakyat 'not daft'

Another reason, Tengku Putra said, was because there was 'a vacuum' in the approving process at the ministerial level when current Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai ( photo ) had probably approved the application thinking that then acting transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein had supported it.

"What I want to know is what the deputy transport minister was doing all the while when the submission was received and acknowledged?

“Didn't he take the time to understand the repercussions of accepting such a submission or did he not understand the meaning of the word 'patriot'?" he added.

As for the Road Transport Department (RTD), which said that YPN must meet all the conditions before approval is given for the plates' auction, Tengku Putra said the rakyat were not 'daft enough' to believe that the plates would be recalled.

"Under extreme pressure and with the chaos that will be raised by those who paid good money for them, the government will capitulate and decide otherwise to appease the public while letting off the outfit that has made millions from it on the pretext of promoting national unity.

"But silly statements like these are not unfamiliar to the Road Transport chief (Ismail Ahmad). If I'm not mistaken, he once also played clairvoyant by predicting some 10,000-odd deaths on the road by 2020 for some reason," said Tengku Putra.